Heracles
Mythological Narrative
Heracles, son of Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene, was the strongest of the Greek heroes. Hera persecuted him from birth, sending two serpents against his cradle; the infant strangled them with his bare hands. As a grown man he was driven mad by the goddess and killed his own wife and children, and the Delphic oracle sentenced him to serve King Eurystheus of Mycenae and perform twelve labors in atonement.
He strangled the invulnerable Nemean lion and wore its skin ever after; cut down the many-headed Hydra of Lerna, searing each neck to stop it regrowing; captured the golden-horned hind and the Erymanthian boar; turned a river to wash out in one day the stables where Augeas kept three thousand cattle; fetched the belt of the Amazon queen, the cattle of Geryon, and the golden apples of the Hesperides; and at the last dragged the hound Cerberus up from the underworld with his bare hands. He died in a robe soaked with the poisoned blood of the centaur Nessus, burned himself on a pyre atop Mount Oeta, and was received into Olympus as a god, wedded to Hebe, goddess of youth. His cult spread across the Greek and Roman world, where he was called Hercules.
Classical Art & Museum Artifacts
High-resolution museum artifacts, classical sculptures, pottery reliefs, and bronze idols preserving authentic historical representations of Heracles.
Bronze statuette of Herakles
Sardonyx cameo fragment with Hercules tying up Cerberus
Academic Discussion & Critique
Exchange peer-reviewed hypotheses, comparative Indo-European etymologies, and archaeological field interpretations regarding Heracles.
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Cerberus
The monstrous hound guarding the gate of the underworld, offspring of Typhon and Echidna, commonly shown with three heads. Fetching him alive was the twelfth labor of Heracles.
Golden Fleece
The fleece of a flying golden ram, nailed to an oak in the grove of Ares at Colchis and guarded by a sleepless dragon, won by Jason with Medea's help.
Hades
King of the underworld, brother of Zeus and Poseidon, who drew the realm of the dead by lot. Greeks avoided his name, calling him Plouton, the wealthy one.
Prometheus
Son of the Titan Iapetus, his name meaning forethought. For stealing fire for mankind he was nailed to a Caucasian crag, an eagle feeding daily on his liver, until Heracles freed him.